An Egyptian cleric's controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage has uncovered a rift among Islamic scholars.

According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's faculty of Sharia (or Islamic law), "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage".

The religious decree sparked a hot debate on the private satellite network Dream's popular religious talk show and on the front page of today's Al-Masri Al-Yom, Egypt's leading independent daily newspaper.

Suad Saleh, who heads the women's department of Al-Azhar's Islamic studies faculty, pleaded for "anything that can bring spouses closer to each other" and rejected the claim that nudity during intercourse could invalidate a union.

During the live televised debate, Islamic scholar Abdel Muti dismissed the fatwa: "Nothing is prohibited during marital sex, except of course sodomy."

Which brings us back to one of my favorite quotes: "The fanatical Muslims despise America because it's all lapdancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it's all born-again Christians hung up on abortion..."

Wow, just wow. *blink* wow*shakes head*I know nothing about Islam or egypt for that matter. But you have to be kidding me, Invalidaes the marriage??Ok, I could see somone seeing it as a "Sin" but anulling an established marriage??? that is just crazy.

This is actually like 8 kinds of awesome. In most places, getting an annulment is *hard*. If Imam Crackpipe here is right, all you gotta do is strip down and do the nasty, and boom, it was all a misunderstanding. Hell, even the "sane" one thinks a little oral action is enough to get you off the hook.

See, this is actually Sharia women's rights! Sure, we all know that the guy can divorce his wife by saying he does three times. But, see, all the mrs has to do is get her hubby's shlong in her mouth, and voila! And really, how hard can that be?

Depending on how the household is run, she might not even dare touch him unless he starts it. Egypt is fairly liberal compared to places like Iran, where some man have their women walk 5 paces behind them, out of respect.

I love that we watched that in Grade 10 english, and the teacher forget that their was nudity in it. The biggest complaint was from the girls who thought the plate mail was ridiculous. Not that I'm saying it isn't.

Ahhh, Catholic school. Somehow they managed to avoid showing most of the nudity in Schindler's List, though, despite us having to get some sort of waiver signed.